HTC Devices Serial Number explanation

With this post I start line of the educational articles that explains how the things are working in HTC. In this first article I’ll explain the meaning of serial numbers what for they are needed and how to decode it.

Serial number is unique number of device that can help HTC to define where, when and for which market device was produced. There are no 2 devices with identical serial numbers (unless some illegal changes have made). But what for it’s needed? Well, the main reason was defined earlier, however there is one more, OTA updates. HTC checks IMEI, SN and some other values to decide, whether or not to push for this exact device new OTA update. So as can be seen, serial number has a great impact on the device service and maintaining. But how to understand what’s encoded in FA4AYY804757 or SH47FWM00001?

For that we need to split serial number by parts so it will look like this (Valid for devices produced after 2012/06/01):

FS YMD ID XXXXX

Where:

FS – Factory Site, it’s divided into

HT & TY: Taiwan Taoyuan A factory

FA & 5A: Taiwan Taoyuan B factory

SZ & SC: China SuZhou

SH & KC: China ShangHai KQ factory

HC & KD: China ShangHai KD factory

LC: LongCheer (Mainly ODM/MTK devices)

CC: CEI (Mainly ODM/MTK devices)

YMD – Year/Month/Day

Y (Year): the last digit of the year in which the product was produced

M (Month): 1-9=Jan.-Sep.; A-C=Oct.-Dec.

D (Day): 1-9=1-9; A-Z=10-31

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ID – Device ID

For example M9 is YJ, M8 is WM, M7 is W9, Desire EYE is Y8 and etc…

XXXXX – is the identification number of the device produced in the specific day. It’s calculated in decimal system.

So lets, take as example serial number FA 4AY Y8 04757 and figure how this is working:

FA – Taiwan Taoyuan B factory

4AY – 2014/10/30

Y8 – Desire EYE

04757 – this is 04757 unit produced on the Taiwan Taoyuan B factory 2014/10/30

So it’s quite easy to figure where the device came from and when it was produced. So this was quick guide about HTC’s serial numbers.

Leave comments below with your thoughts and topics about what you want to know more!